Truckers traveling through much of the eastern U.S. ought to be prepared for extreme cold across much of the region, and some considerable snowfall in parts of the coastal South this weekend.
The National Weather Service’s latest report says:
“A powerful Arctic blast will bring dangerously cold, record low temperatures to the Gulf Coast, upper Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast U.S. into this weekend. A rapidly deepening storm centered just off the North Carolina coast Friday night through Saturday night will produce widespread heavy snow and wind from the southern Appalachians across the Carolinas and southern Virginia.”
The service says, “… a rapidly intensifying coastal cyclone is forecast to bring heavy snow, high winds, and blizzard conditions for the Carolinas this weekend. The same weather system will spread high winds and coastal flooding potentials up and down the Eastern Seaboard by later in the weekend.”
Also being forecast is what the service calls “an intense surge of arctic air behind the coastal storm will send below freezing temperatures down toward South Florida by Sunday morning.”
Additionally, an arctic air mass that has been anchored over eastern Canada through late January is now being unleashed southward toward the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., said the weather service. The core of the arctic air is forecast to dive into the southeastern U.S. this weekend before exiting the coast.
The weather service warns that “as the core of the extremely cold air moves over the still very warm Gulf Stream, the potential energy unleashed will result in the formation of a coastal cyclone that could intensify explosively just off the southeastern U.S. later this weekend.”
This will create snow in Kentucky today, which will expand as it moves across the southern Appalachians on Saturday, and the cyclone begins to form off the Carolina coast.
Saturday night into Sunday should see the cyclone intensifying most rapidly while expanding in size off the Mid-Atlantic coast. Snow is forecast to overspread the Carolinas, southern Virginia and northern Georgia through much of Saturday. Anywhere from 8 to 12 inches of snow is possible.
From Saturday night into early on Sunday is the time frame when the most intense winds will be accompanied with moderate to heavy snow, even out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which could lead to blizzard conditions for a while as the intense cyclone should begin to move out to sea Sunday morning.
However, the explosive deepening of the cyclone and the rapid expansion of its size will bring high winds and coastal flooding potentials rapidly up and down the Eastern Seaboard by Saturday evening when high winds combined with high tides could produce locally significant coastal flooding and damaging waves, the weather service said.
According to the weather service, an intense Arctic blast is set to surge south into the Northern Plains, reaching the Gulf Coast by this evening and especially by this weekend behind the intense East Coast cyclone. Numerous daily record low temperatures are expected throughout portions of the upper Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic.
Dangerously cold temperatures and record low temperatures are then expected to reach the Southeast this weekend. Freezing temperatures are forecast to surge as far south as South Florida by Sunday morning.
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